Another plucky second leg performance to come, but history shows Arsenal are facing Champions League exit?

Arsenal will have to overcome a two goal deficit to progress to the last 8 of the Uefa Champions League, following their 3-1 defeat to Monaco in the first leg of the last 16 tie at the Emirates Stadium last night.

History isn’t on Arsenal’s side in losing a home leg by two goals and still progressing to the next round in Europe’s premier club competition.

The last side to achieve that feat in were Ajax way back in 1969.

Ajax lost 3-1 at home to Benfica in the first leg of their European Cup quarter-final, before winning by the same score in Lisbon.

There were no penalty kicks to decide the outcome of matches in those days.

The sides met again with Ajax winning 3-0 after extra time.

Arsenal came close to emulating Ajax against Bayern Munich two years ago.

Losing the first leg of their last 16 tie with Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium 3-1, before winning 2-0 in Germany and exiting on the away goals rule.

Arsenal have been consistent in exiting at the last 16 stage for the last four years, with the damage being done in losing the first leg in three of those years.

Last year losing 2-0 at home to Bayern Munich, before drawing 1-1 in Germany.

In 2011, the Gunners were unable to claw back a 4-0 away loss to AC Milan at the San Siro, despite winning the second leg 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium.

The ultimate motivation for the Arsenal players for the second leg should be in listening to the thoughts of Monaco’s second goalscorer Dimitar Berbatov, saying that his team wanted to win more last night.

The Bulgarian told Sky Sports “Nobody expected that probably but we are confident in our ability and honestly we deserved to win. We scored our chances and in the end it was a great win for us.”

Berbatov added: “We are good. Arsenal is a good team but today probably we wanted the win more than them, We fought all over the pitch, won our challenges and scored the goals.

“In a team like Arsenal I don’t think they can allow themselves to underestimate our team today but if they did then it’s up to them.”

Per Mertesacker who was unlucky to deflect Monaco’s opening goal into his own net has issued a rallying call for the second leg.

The German’s lack of pace was ruthlessly exposed by Monaco for their second and third goals, has said.

“Overall it’s very disappointing for us,” Mertesacker told Arsenal Player. “We came out quite well, tried to put pressure on them and created a few half-chances. After, we dropped and fought not to concede.

“That would have been the key for us, then we conceded that goal with a heavy deflection – but that can happen. I thought in the second half we exaggerated a bit, looked a bit over motivated at times and they got us on the break.

“That’s what we expected, but when you try to come back as quickly as possible, you can make some mistakes. That’s what hurt at the end.

“We never give up. That’s always the sense of our game, even if the expectations will be low now. It’s easy to write us off now but it’s just half-time. A lot of things can happen over there and we will try.

“As we have seen we have been remarkable at bouncing back from disappointing results. That will be the key – to be absolutely brave and try to be on the front foot from the start to the end. There are still 90 minutes to play. That is our big target there.”

If Arsenal match Ajax’s feat in Monaco it will go down as one of the great night’s in the clubs history.